WENTNOR | Prolley Moor WENTNOR | Prolley Moor WENTNOR | Prolley Moor Walking with Offa 4 GETTING THERE: You can find public transport options Walking Food, drink and throughout Shropshire at: 4 accommodation www.travelshropshire.co.uk. with Offa Imagine patrolling the border Or contact Traveline on 08712 002233. without a decent pub. How would Offa’s Dyke have been BY CAR: Parking is available to the right and rear of built without them? Over a Wentnor Stores, SY9 5EP by kind permission of the thousand years later, keep up owners. Please park considerately and do not park in Red Kites and the tradition and stop for a front of the shop as this is in constant use by customers. drink and a bite to eat at either Curlew on The Crown Inn or the Inn on To get the best from your walk we recommend the Green at Wentnor. comfortable walking boots, waterproof jacket and Prolley Moor The Crown Inn offers real ales and home cooking in overtrousers, warm clothing, gloves and warm hat or sun a traditional 16th Century family run country inn. cream and sun hat (depending on the season!), a mobile phone and something to eat and drink. Sheep and cattle Meals are served in the bar area or in a separate are often in the fields on these routes – dogs must be dining room. The choices change daily from kept under close control or on leads at all times. traditional homemade dishes to a daily specials board with home made sweets to finish. The Crown Inn also offers three double rooms and one single Walking with Offa Promoting the Welsh English border A relaxed, four and a half mile walk as a great place to get your boots on, enjoy the beautiful room; all en suite, making it an ideal base for touring countryside and indulge in some fabulous food and drink. over fields and quiet lanes, this unspoilt part of the country and its many places For more details contact the Shropshire Hills Area w with one steep climb, taking between g it in h of interest. For more details and current opening k O of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership on l a f f a hours contact the Crown on 01588 650613 W 01588 674080 two and three hours. or visit the website: www.wentnor.com, The Crown or see www.shropshirehillsaonb.co.uk 15 stiles. Inn, Wentnor, Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire, SY9 5EE Many thanks to Steven Levers from Bishop’s Castle for developing The Inn on the Green offers real ales and freshly this walk. Photographs by Steven Levers and Jay Mitchell. prepared meals, with a full main and children’s There are 18 pub walks in this series and four menu, specials and light bites, served in the bar ‘Days Out’. Download, including podcasts, from www.shropshirewalking.co.uk/walking-with- or the separate lounge/dining area. It has a family offa. Turn your Smartphone into a complete games room, free Wi-Fi access and a beer garden. outdoors GPS. Download an app: www.viewranger.com and search for ‘Walking The accommodation comprises of one twin, three with Offa’. A guide featuring twelve walks is The Welsh English Border - double rooms and a family room that sleeps up available. to six. For more details and current opening hours where King Offa met his match! contact 01588 650105, or The Inn on the Green, One of a series of walks with Wentnor, Shropshire, SY9 5EF. spectacular views and glimpses of Camping is available at The Green Caravan and Shropshire Hills history, wildlife and archaeology. Camping Park 01588 650605. Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Wentnor Stores offers a wide range of drinks and This project has been supported by Advantage West Midlands’ snacks to take with you on your walk. Natural Assets Programme in partnership with Natural England. in the Shropshire Hills Walking Red Kites and Curlew A relaxed, four and a half mile walk over fields and quiet lanes, with Offa 4 on Prolley Moor with one steep climb, taking between two and three hours. Start – Wentnor Stores, Rock Close, SY9 5EP. right fence line. Cross metal stile and descend steps into tarmac lane. Turn right and leave lane where it 1 With ‘Wentnor Stores’ on your right, proceed along to cross footbridge. Bear left to cross large open field bends left at ‘Long Mynd View’ to continue straight on road and take gravelled drive on left. Take the stile to towards a visible stile in fence. Cross stile and continue along track as it narrows then widens and bends left right of, or pass between stone pillars. Continue along in same direction towards some trees. Ignore stile to reach the Crown Inn car park. Pass pub to exit onto drive and cross stile in right fence. Pass right of house and footbridge on right, instead cross stile in the fence road running through Wentnor Village. and bear left across field to cross stile in corner. Keep line to the left. Near this spot lies a saline spring, known for its healing A detour left will take you to Wentnor Church. Inside the church under the left and pass through a gap/gate on left. Turn right and qualities. A hundred years ago there were ambitious plans to turn Church tower is a gravestone marking the tragic Hurricane of 1772 that destroyed a climb field to exit via gate at top of bank into tarmac lane. Stretton into a spa town by pumping this ‘water-cure’ the four miles to the house and killed its seven occupants. 2 Turn left to junction. Ignore first but take second Hydropathic Establishment, now known as the Long Mynd Hotel. Amongst 6 Turn right and follow road passing the quirky ‘Travellers gate on right into field. Follow right boundary. As field other problems one thing stood in their way, the Long Mynd itself and so the Rest’ and turn left at ‘Welcome to Wentnor’ sign through project failed. descends leave boundary and keep ahead through gate gate on to public footpath. Descend field to cross stile in 5 Turn left to cross brook via footbridge and continue at bottom of field. Cross this field and through another hedge at bottom. Continue down to left corner and exit straight on rising up the field. As you near the top bear gate. Keep right and take second gate on right to exit carefully down the steep bank onto road. Turn right and in right to join fence and exit through gate into adjacent on to a track to left of ‘The Moorhouse’. Keep left of a few minutes you will be back at the start. field. Turn left and follow fence to top and exit via stile farm buildings and stay on wide track to exit on to a tarmac lane. Turn left as far as the signs for Holly & Yew Tree Cottages, and take gate on the right. The ‘Red Kite’ is a graceful bird of prey and unmistakable with its reddish-brown body, angled 3 wings and deeply forked tail. It was saved from national extinction by one of the world’s longest running protection programmes. The ‘Curlew’ is the largest European wading bird, recognisable on moors by its long, down-curved bill, 2 brown upperparts, long legs and evocative call. Both species are monitored and ongoing conservation work is needed to support their survival. 1 No through 3 Follow track passing three cottages. Following the road left boundary cross stile ahead and continue on to cross two small footbridges and stiles. Stay with left boundary up field to the left of a copse of trees to exit 6 via stile on to tarmac lane. Turn right and follow lane 4 for 1/3 mile to road junction. Continue straight along CHURCH STRETTON ‘No through Road’, passing farm and through gate to reach a stone/dirt track. WENTNOR 4 Follow this enclosed (often muddy) track for ½ mile. On reaching farm buildings turn right onto tarmac lane and continue down to T-junction. Turn left and 5 soon cross stile in right hedge. Follow left boundary LYDBURY to pass through a wide gap in ‘oncoming’ hedge into NORTH an open field. Bear right, head to stile in the centre of CRAVEN ARMS 2nd Edition, August 2013 © Crown copyright and database rights 2011 Ordnance Survey 100049049 You are not permitted to copy, sub-licence, distribute or sell any of this data to third parties in any form..